Breaking News: Luke Weaver will not pitch for the New York Yankees during the World Series.
First of all, he is blind. Second, he is a lifelong Dodgers fan and remembers falling asleep to the sounds of the games on the radio.
Weaver should not be confused with Yankees closer Luke Weaver, whose star has risen this year as he mows down hitters and screams on the mound. This Luke Weaver is just a guy.
Dodgers fans like Weaver with namesakes on the Bronx Bombers are in a pickle this fall, caught between the team they support and the American League stalwart whose name they share. Fandom seems to win out.
“I hope it gets destroyed in the World Series,” Weaver told the Times. “I wish him good luck. I wish him a good career. But you know, I hope he gets four blown saves in the World Series.
Weaver, who lives in Palmdale but lived a half-mile from Dodger Stadium, is a retired courier who delivered gifts and checks to celebrities before going blind 12 years ago. He still listens to Dodgers games on the radio and supports his favorite team, even though he can no longer watch them play. About seven years ago, he heard about a player in the league with his name and bought a bunch of Luke Weaver cards.
“I think he pitched for the Diamondbacks back in the day, and I got all his baseball cards in case he became famous,” Weaver said.
Clay Holmes, a lifelong Venice resident, hasn’t played much baseball since he was a catcher at Palisades High School last century. Unlike the Yankees’ relief pitcher, this Clay Holmes is campaigning for the Dodgers to bring the Commissioner’s Trophy back to Los Angeles.
Angeleno Clay Holmes kind of understands what it means to be a professional athlete — he supplements his income by playing competitive poker — even though he says he doesn’t really break a sweat doing it.
If the Dodgers are down 6-5 in the ninth inning, would Holmes care if his namesake comes in and gets knocked around a bit?
“I wouldn’t have a problem with it if it meant a Dodgers win,” he said.
In fact, on the diamond, Clay Holmes only wishes the worst for Clay Holmes.
“Shohei, Mookie, Freddie. I hope they do some shopping and retire [game-winning hit] out of it,” he said.
The situation is a little different for Aaron Judge – not the record-breaking Yankees slugger, but the Dodgers fan who served in the U.S. Air Force.
“Air Force intramural softball really prepared me for the big leagues,” he said.
Judge is a Montana native, a free agent when it comes to choosing a major league team to root for. His father traveled to Los Angeles when Judge was a child, so Judge decided to be a Dodger fan.
“That was Steve Garvey when I was a kid,” he said. “I would have played T-ball or Little League then.”
About once a month, the judge will receive a comment from a waiter or cashier who looks at his credit card and sees that he has the same name as the big league player.
“It’s never boring. I kind of laugh about it,” he said.
Harder are the texts and phone calls he gets from kids who think they’ve reached the 2022 American League MVP, only to realize they’re hooking up with another Aaron Judge.
“I get calls from kids in New York and Jersey asking me if I’m No. 99. I must let them down easy,” he said.
Although he has supported the Mariners and Phillies in the interim, this year he is supporting the Dodgers in the World Series. But he still wishes his young namesake good luck.
“I wish him a good series. I know he will play his best. He is a great player and a leader. I hope the Dodgers win, but I’m not going to say, “Oh my God, I hope the Yankees lose.” I think they are two great teams.
Anthony Volpe – who is not the Yankees’ young shortstop – also supports the Dodgers, even though he lives in the Bay Area.
“Yes, I know there’s a Yankees player named after me,” he said. “But I’m from California, so I support the Dodgers.”
“I can support Volpe individually but the Dodgers as a team,” he said.
Volpe noted that the name is not very uncommon among Italian-Americans. It means “fox” in Italian, said Volpe, who has dual American and Italian citizenship.
Volpe’s friends like to send him pictures of the television at a bar with his name under the baseball player’s image. Or they’ll send him a photo of a Jumbotron at the game if Volpe is playing.
The judge hears the family’s teasing.
“My kids will call me and say, ‘Hey, I see you hit a home run today. Nice work.’”
